We'll Send You a Hogwarts Photo Album
by FlyingLuna
Summary: What happened to George Weasley during the summer after Voldemort fell?  Will he ever be able to deal with his twin's death?  Can closure really come in the form of a photo album?


**AN: This is the first fic I've posted here. I had originally written this for a Harry Potter fanfic contest a few months ago with the prompt being something along the lines of, "What happened the summer after Voldemort fell?"**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

It was summer on Diagon Alley. The sun was bright, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and it was a beautiful day.

However, for George Weasley, it seemed like there would never be a beautiful day again. It had been just over two months since Fred had been killed. Fred, his best friend and twin, had died in the Final Battle right before his own eyes.

George turned the key to his shop, locking the door and activating the wards that Bill had set for him.

There had been much lost in the Final Battle. People were killed; others were scarred for life. That was one of the things George hated most.

"If there had never been Voldemort, so many things would be different," he whispered to himself with a sigh.

He walked towards the Leaky Cauldron, inevitably passing the statue that had been put up to remember those fallen in the First and Second Wars. On the side of the memorial were the names of all of the people who had been killed fighting to bring Voldemort down. The first section at the top listed all of the Order members who had died. Just as he had many times before, George glanced down the list and traced the final name with his fingers.

_Fred Weasley_

He willed it not to be true, that maybe this was all just a bad dream, and his twin _was_ still alive, after all. When he looked back, the name was still there.

Tears formed in George's eyes, but he brushed them away. When finally he had entered the Leaky Cauldron, the barkeeper went over to him right away.

"The usual butterbeer?" Tom asked. George shook his head.

"Firewhiskey." Tom nodded solemnly. He had many customers now who came in just to run away from the world.

"I'll be right back with that."

George laid his head down on the cold wooden table. _Why me?_ he thought.

"Hey, George," a quiet voice said from next to him. George slowly raised his head to see Angelina Johnson, former Gryffindor chaser.

"Hi, Angelina," he replied. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question. Mind if I sit down?" George shook his head and motioned to the chair. Tom walked back over to the table holding two full mugs of firewhiskey.

"Here you go," he said, setting one mug in front of each of them. "Let me know if you need something."

"Thanks," Angelina said. She turned back to George. "So how has your summer been?" George looked away from her and down to his mug.

"Fine, I suppose." George sighed. "It's just hard, you know? Having lost so many people? I can't help but think...maybe if we had been in opposite places…"

"George, you can't do anything about that," Angelina said, gently covering one of George's hands in her own.

"But if I had been where he was, Fred could still be alive!"

"If, if, if. Things happen for a reason. You can't fix what already happened in the past." Angelina saw a spark of inspiration in George's eye.

"I can, though! I can go back and fix it!" He seemed excited now, having thought of the perfect way to bring his brother back.

"Don't you dare even try."

"Why not?" George asked.

"Your brother knew what he was getting into by joining the fight. You all knew. He made that choice." Angelina saw that George was about to interrupt her, but held a hand up to stop him. "You can't go back to change that, either. Fred was a Gryffindor; he had more courage than most people that I know. Do you think he would have just sat by and watched people die?"

Angelina was able to clearly see on George's face that no, he didn't think Fred would have just watched. However, by this point, tears had started to stream down his face.

"He had a full life ahead of him!" George exclaimed. "He had a future, and it was just taken from him! He…he…" George was sobbing uncontrollably.

"I know that it's hard to talk about, but it will help. Everyone's lost people in this war, and they've all had to go through the same thing that you're going through now."

"Sure," George scoffed, "and how many of those people lost their closest friend? Their _twin_?" Angelina was silent. She had no answer. "It's all my fault!" George slammed his fist onto the table in anger.

"Let's think of this a different way," she reasoned.

"What other way is there to think of it? Fred is _gone._ He's DEAD! He's not coming back!"

"You're brother cared about other people, correct?" George sullenly nodded. "So that means that he would have tried to save those other people, right?" Once again, he nodded. "Your brother died fighting to save others. Do you think he would have wanted to die any other way?"

"No," George said quietly, his voice raspy from crying. "But he was only just barely 20."

"I know. It's hard to think that he was so young, but other people have died young as well. What about Harry's parents? They were 21, and they both died to protect their only child. Lily didn't even have to die. She could have just walked away and let Voldemort kill Harry, but she didn't."

"How is that the same? They died for their son. Fred died for nobody!"

"Fred died protecting the wizarding world," Angelina said quietly. George was silent as he took a sip of his firewhiskey.

"I suppose you're right," George agreed. "Is it still normal for me to miss him terribly, though?"

"Yes. It would be strange if you didn't. He was not only your best friend, but your twin brother. I would be worried if you didn't miss him."

"I just don't know how to move past this. It seems like life will never go on."

"That'll never go away, but I think that over time that feeling will lessen."

"Is there anything that can help, though?" George asked. Angelina gave him a comforting smile.

"I think I know just the thing."

"What?" Angelina shook her head.

"I'll meet you back at the Burrow in ten minutes." George slightly nodded. Both paid Tom and apparated away.

George appeared in front of the Burrow and knocked on the door. Mrs. Weasley answered, and immediately pulled him into a tight hug.

"Oh, George, we've missed having you here," she exclaimed.

"I've missed you too, Mum. I hope you don't mind, but Angelina Johnson is coming over."

"Oh course, dear." She gave her son a motherly smiled and ushered him into the house. She sat George down at the table and placed a plate of fresh cookies in front of him. He gave her a questioning look, and she just smiled. "I've had nothing to do lately, so I've been baking a lot."

"Thanks, Mum." He picked up a cookie and bit into it. "I forgot how good your cookies were." Mrs. Weasley walked over and pulled him into another hug. Just then, there was another knock on the door.

"Come in, dear," Mrs. Weasley said to Angelina as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley. Do you mind if George and I go upstairs?"

"Go right ahead. I'll be in the kitchen in you need anything." Angelina nodded and she tapped George on the shoulder.

"Shall we?" George nodded and led Angelina up to his and Fred's old room.

George sucked in a breath as he saw the room. It was exactly as it had been when they had moved out three years ago. The dresser still had sketches of their plans on top. Fred's markings and comments were still written there. They remained untouched, and George was careful not to disturb them.

A tear slid from the corner of his eye. Angelina moved next to George and wrapped her arms around him.

"It'll be okay," she whispered. She grabbed his hand and pulled him over to sit on his bed. She pulled out a stack of books from her bag that George only just noticed she had brought with her. As George looked at the books more closely, he realized exactly what they were.

_Photo albums_.

"What's in those?" he asked.

"I made these after we graduated from Hogwarts. There are pictures in these all the way back from 1989."

"That was our first year," George whispered to himself in realization. Angelina nodded and flipped open to the first page. There was a picture of the forty new students filing into the Great Hall. The first two people, fearlessly walking into the Hall, were Fred and George.

Angelina flipped another page. This time, there was a picture of them at the 1989 Halloween Feast. Fred and George had both dressed up as twin ghosts, having asked an older student to put a charm on them to make themselves transparent. On the other half of the page was a picture of them dressed as elves with Charlie dressed up as Father Christmas.

George went to flip the page, but Angelina stopped him. She passed him a different album. When he opened to the first page, instead of a picture, he found a hand-written note.

_The Hogwarts Class of 1996 faced many challenges throughout their seven years at school. During these times Voldemort affected the school not once, not twice, but at least four times. The school suffered the death of a beloved student from the Class of 1995, Cedric Diggory, at the hands of a Death Eater. Even through these hard times, the Class of 1996 still held together and helped to make the younger generations of the Wizarding World ready to face the world._

_I am very proud to have been part of the Hogwarts Class of 1996. During my seven years, I have been lucky enough to go to school with several remarkable students and members of staff. I played Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team under Captain Oliver Wood. I joined Dumbledore's Army, led by my friend Harry Potter. Most importantly, I went to school under the leadership of the best headmaster that I think Hogwarts has ever had, Albus Dumbledore. I will certainly never forget the last seven years I have spent at this school._

_Fred Weasley, Hogwarts Class of 1996, Gryffindor Beater, Member of the DA_

George was crying again now. He had never known that his brother had written anything about their time at school. The next few pages in the album contained pictures that mainly focused on Fred.

"He had written this and left it for Dumbledore to read at future graduations. After he passed on, though, I owled other people from our class to see if they had pictures, and I got a copy of his note from Dumbledore. I was going to give this to you for Christmas, but I think you should have it now."

George went through the next few pages and looked at each picture, more tears spilling by the moment. Fred wearing George's new sweater at Christmas, Fred circling the quidditch pitch with George, Fred and George lifting Harry on their shoulders after the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, Fred and his first corporal Patronus…there were pictures of everything George could think of.

"This is…I can't even begin…" he said, his voice quiet as he looked a picture of him and Fred laughing. He went to the next picture and saw each of them with half an animal body, which had been the result of a botched experiment. George laughed boisterously.

"Don't remember his death, remember his life. He would have wanted you to remember him in a good way and be able to laugh again one day," Angelina said.

George smiled at Angelina before giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you so much," he said to her.

For the first time since the Battle of Hogwarts, George had smiled and laughed.

One year later, George and Angelina were married. Although George still missed his twin and had been found by Angelina crying on numerous occasions, he had found a source of happiness in his life that kept him from falling back into the depression of the summer after the Battle of Hogwarts.

As George once again looked through the album with Fred's note, he couldn't help but smile. After all, even though he had lost his twin, he had found his soul mate.

**AN: Good? Bad? Somewhere in the middle? I would gladly accept any reviews. :)**


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